


Spouse 'napping for fun and profit.

by Dizzydino



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Amaya strong, Ethari needs a hug, F/F, F/M, Humans 'napping elves, M/M, elves 'napping elves, elves 'napping humans, i'm back on my bullllllllll, is it considered kidnapping if its consensual?, is it??, please reply, prince runnaan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23280664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzydino/pseuds/Dizzydino
Summary: 3 pairings. 3 different ways to kidnap your spouse.
Relationships: Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 157





	1. Runaan

Runnan

Runaan stalked his pray through the dusty, narrow streets. 

He darted from shadow to shadow, dipping behind stacks of crates and the odd barrel, completely silent.  
His target was, at the moment, completely unaware of the shadow that was passing them through the small mining town that they called home. Even from a distance, Runaan could see the hobbles on the elf’s legs, and the thick leather collar around the elf’s neck, a chain linking them to the stocky figure pulling them along.  
This elf, a young moonshadow, just like himself, was being led trough the streets by his owner, a gruff earthblood miner who was yanking on the chain over and over to make them walk faster. There head was bowed, hands tied. They were the picture of someone who had given up.  


Runaan followed, swiftly and silently.  
It was not time yet. 

The Earthblood stopped outside a shady looking building on the outskirts of the town. It was run down, dusty, and felt.. wrong, somehow. Runaan did not want to dwell on why. The miner seemed to be considering something for a moment, then He snorted, hooked the chain to the hitch outside that was normally used for mounts, and marched inside, snapping at the young elf not to move. The moonshadow sat down the best he could with the hobbles on his legs, a downcast, heartbroken look on his face.  
Runaan, waited a moment before slipping out of the shadows and over to the chained elf. The elf almost jumped out of his skin at Runaan’s sudden appearance. Assassin training had its merits, the ability to move silently was one of them.  
“R-Runaan? What are you doing here?” he rasped, throat dry. They had clearly been crying. Runaan’s hard heart gave a little squish at the sound of his voice. it was partly his fult that this had happened. And he was going to fix it.  


“I’m getting you out of here” Runnan replied promptly, as he started to pick the locks of the hobbles.  
“What.. why?” the slave elf tipped his head in confusion. This..was not what been discussed last night.  
“why do you think?”  
“… you shouldn’t do this. You said you was not going to do this. Your parents will…”  
“I lied. They will have to come around. Or lump it.”  
“you? lying? Runaan….”  


The two of them froze at the sound of movement inside the building, voices moving towards the door. Laughter. The slave owner was coming back outside, with company.  
Runaan took a deep breath, unhitched the chain, and gave the chain a yank, dragging the elf up to his feet. He took a deep breath, and locked eyes with the other elf. They looked so scared, but there was a small glimmer of hope somewhere in those brown eyes.  
“Ethari.” He said, voice level “Run”  


They took off, ignoring the sound of angered yelling that echoed behind them. runaan focused intently on making an escape, dragging the slightly slower Ethari along behind him, refusing to let go of the chain in his hands. His link to the one he loved.  
Ethari stumbled, catching his foot on something on the ground. Runaan moved automatically, sweeping the other elf up into his arms, then over one shoulder in one swift movement, never losing momentum.  
To stop would be suicide for both of them.  


skirting around the edge of the mining town, Runaan ducked and dodged into the scaggy woodland that led out of the town and into the mountains, only stopping once they were well into the woods, and a long way away from those who were chasing them. Runaan stood stock still in the middle of a clearing, straining his ears. The only sounds around where the chatter of birds and the wind in the leaves.  
He plopped Ethari down to the forest floor, wheezing. Despite being slightly malnourished, Ethari was still solidly built from a life of mining and smithing. His back was going to give him hell for this later, but for now, that was not his primary concern.  
“you ok?” he wheezed, reaching down to cut the rope teeing Ethari’s hands together.  
Ethari blinked blankly at him for a moment, still slightly shocked, and nodded slowly. Then he looked up to Runaan and locked eyes with him.  
Then they both fell out laughing.  


\- 

Runaan had hidden a small wagon full of his things, and some of Ethari’s crafting tools and supplies, a little farther into the woods, hitched to a shadowpaw, with runaan’s moonstrider laying in the shadows nearby. On closer inspection, Ethari realised that the shadowpaw in question was the same one his former master had ‘disposed of’ the night before, the same one that Ethari had raised from an abandoned cub into a healthy, loving adult over the last year.  
Biscuits thumped her head into Ethari’s chest purring her little heart out, clearly happy to see him again.  
“…… How……” Ethari’s voice quaked.  
“I have my ways.” Runaan pulled a set of tin snips out of one of the many bags on the wagon and made a motion for Ethari to hold still. With one fluid movement, he cut the collar form ethari’s neck, and tossed it and the chain off somewhere into the woods.  
Erhari rubbed his neck, united biscuits, and clambered up onto the drivers seat of the wagon, still shaking a little from the adrenaline, as Runaan hopped onto his moonstrider, cridhe-milis. (A overly flowery name in Ethair’s opinion, but she had a pedigree almost as long as her rider. )  


Runnan made a grand gesture towards Biscuits.  
“consider her an extra wedding gift. You ready to go?”  
Ethari grinned at his love, whistle once, and Biscuits moved off, loping along happily as milis trotted alongside them. they travelled in silence for a couple of minutes, before his brain pinged back into gear.  
“wait. Wedding?”  
“yes.”  
“you were not kidding about that?”  
“no.”  


“… your father will murder you. When he finds out that you are marrying someone the likes of me” Ethari ventured after a while.  
“Ethari, I am… 5th in line for the moonshadow throne.” Runaan said in the most matter of fact way possible “ And that’s only because none of my siblings have children. Trust me. He was the one who shipped me off to be an assassin. He does not care for me, at all. And besides.” He reached over and poked Ethari’s side “unlike my siblings, I for one want to marry for love.”  
Ethari went bright red, and tried to hide his face, only for Runaan to pull him over for a kiss.  
“I love you, you silly, silly thing.”  
“I love you too, my long haired prince.” Ethari whispered back.  


\- 

They camped out behind a small outcrop, overlooking a clear, cold lake. They had made it down into a pristine glacial valley on the other side of the mountain from the earthblood mining town. Moonshadow territory was on the other side of the ridge from where they were, but the road was hazardous to travel at night, and they were all tired. So as Ethari gingerly washed himself in the lake, Runaan set up camp and fetched some dinner.  
One mountain ramba later, 2 elves, a moonstrider and a shadowpaw lounged around a campfire, watching the moon and stars in the clear sky. Ethari snuggled into Runaan’s side, dressed in a mis-matched shirt and trousers combo that Runaan had nabbed at some point the morning before. The garments were a bit to large for him, and clashed horribly, but they were clean.  
And he was safe.  
Runaan had muttered something about going shopping the next friendly town they hit.  


“where are we going, exactly?” he asked after a long while of just existing together.  
“hmm?” Runaan was apparently in the prosses of falling asleep “oh. Home. Well, new home. I got my placement, and it came with a couple of properties to choose from” being the son of the moonshadow’s king did have its perks from time to time, despite the less than agreeable relationship the two of them had.  


“Annnnnd?” Ethari stretched his arms around Runaan’s chest and pulled him close.  
“well… since you were coming with me come hell or hight water, I went for one with a niiice big er.. tree house is how they described it.”  
“tree house?”  
“a house built into the trunk of a tree. What else would you call it. anyway, 2 bedrooms..”  
“Two?”  
“children one day? Remember, you said?” Runaan smiled softly  
“oh right. Heh. So I did. - Tiadrin and lain still want their one year old, right?”  
“Ethari!” Runaan bopped Ethari between the horns, mussing his short, scruffy hair.  
“I kid, I kid. Go on.”  


“as I was saying, 2 bedrooms, combined kitchen and living room, small herb garden annnnd…”  
“annnnd?”  
“A nice big workshop on the ground floor, for someone. Very. Special.” Runaan booped the tip of Ethair's nose in time to His words.  
Ethari looked up at runaan with glistening eyes.  
“I wonder who that is” Runaan whispered, pressing a soft kiss onto Ethari’s forehead.  
Ethari kissed him back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next  
> Khessa: you can take anything you can carry  
> Amaya: >:3


	2. Amaya

Amaya  
(same universe as chained heat. Khessa lives. Oh boy.)

The falling action after the battle of the spire was… not fun.  
There was (a lot of) damage to sort out, both at the spire and Lux Aurea, a lot of cursed prisoners to also sort out (a lot of them being taken back to Lux Aurea) and politics to sort out.  
Also at Lux Aurea.  
So back to Lux Aurea 2 and a bit armies (human and elven), some miscellaneous royals of varying species and a stray moonshadow elf went. 

Amaya had to laugh at Callum’s face at the sight of the sunfire capital city, which was amazing sight to behold, despite its eclipsed and battered . Janai and Khessa had almost immediately thrown themselves into working out what needed doing, starting with removing the dark taint on the sunforge.  
It only took them and a team of very brave mages (and a lot of inventive cussing) two days to fix things, bathing the gleaming city in warm light once again.  
Then came the less exciting jobs of trying to cure the sun-cursed soldiers (made easier by the fact that keeping said soldiers in a darkened room quieted them down a bunch), fixing any damage that lord bumble brains had caused on his way out (mostly cosmetic. Nothing that some creative planting and a couple of weeks of work would not fix) and trying to figure out how things were going to be from now on.  


That last point had been the most… interesting.  


After the blame game had died down, and representatives of the other elven tribes had arrived to try and hammer out some sort of peace treaty, Amaya finally had some time to sit about and relax in the (quite nice) rooms that had been given to her.  
After pulling a Nordic raid on the royal library.  
It was nice to know that sappy romance novels where a thing on this side of the border too. 

\- 

Janai tried to concentrate on the book that she was reading.  
It was an old favourite, one of those books that had been with her from childhood, and its battered, dog eared condition showed it. It was a sappy ol’ story, a classic knight in shining armour saving a blushing royal beauty from some terrible fate.  
She would tell no one, ever, but she used to fantasise about being the princess in that story, being whisked away to a happily ever after by a pure hearted, battle scared, armoured beauty. Far, far away from the pomp and properness of the royal court.  


The follies of youth. 

Nowadays, Janai could easily say that she was the knight out of that story- battle scars and all.  
She still had to find a princess to save to complete the picture.  
Her idiot sister did. Not. Count. AT ALL.  
After reading the same page no less than 4 times in a row, Janai huffed and decided to go and do something productive instead. Like paperwork. Or some training. Or she could see if there was any volunteer work to be had around the city.  
Anything to get out for a bit.  
And away from her wonderful, sunstuck sister who would not let go of the whole ‘Janai’s pet human’ thing. 

\- 

After a fruitless half hour, she found herself sitting on a balcony over looking the courtyard that the human troops were using to gather together the caravan train that they were going to use to take them back home. All of the leftover supplies, bedding and other odds and ends that the combined renegade katiolan and durainun forces had been transporting kind of haphazardly around Zadia was being condensed into large wagons for easier storage and movement.  
She was a bit confused when she noticed a couple of humans moving some boxes with the sunfire royal crest stamped on the side.  


She headed down into the courtyard, to a chorus of greetings and bowing from the hive of activity that he strolled into.  
Locating the red haired commander, Gren if her memory is correct, to ask about the creates.  
“oh those?” he replied in his normal, friendly tone “something about a combined peace offering and thank you gift. Not overly sure what is in them exactly.”  
They watched another golden box being placed next to a stack of bedrolls.  
Ah.  
After a moment, Gren perked up.  
“oh, and she said General Amaya could take anything she could carry.”  
“what?”  
“well, that is what she said. She was a bit… uh.. distracted.”  
“let me guess, distracted by a certain bald, babyfaced sunfire mage who is very lucky to be alive?” Janai guessed. The two of them had been making puppy eyes at each over for the last week since the vicotry at the storm spire.  
“yes. that and the baby dragon who was trying to make off with her sceptre.”  
The metal image of Khessa playing a game of keep away with a very determined little Zym made Janai giggle. 

\- 

Amaya found her a little bit later, to tell her that the her and the human troops were leaving the next morning.  
This made Janai sad, since the General had become a good friend over the last couple of weeks- and they both had to admit that they were going to miss the daily sparing, bickering, and flat out companionship that the two of them had come to enjoy.  
The fact that Janai definitely had no sort of crush on that woman was not playing any part in the feelings.  
No.  
Not at all. 

Amaya was deep in thought, staring off in to space as they sat together in Janai’s drawing room. Gren was chatting away to Kazi across the room, the two of them having a very animated conversation about .. something… linguistics related.  
They sounded so in love it was adorable.  
Amaya sat back, and looked at Janai, an unreadable gleam in her eyes.  
“what? Is something funny?”  
Amaya seemed to consider something for a moment, looking Janai up and down, then suddenly got up from her chair. 

Before Janai could ask what was wrong, Amaya nabbed Janai out of her chair and lifted her, almost effortlessly, into her arms. Janai let out an indignant squeak as Amaya spun around on her heels to show Gren and Kazi what she had done, a wide smile on her face.  
Gren very promptly burst out laughing.  
Kazi sat befuddled, trying to make sense of what was going on.  


Once Gren had stopped laughing long enough to speak, he managed to choke out a hiccupy:  
“well, she said ‘anything you can carry’.”  
Before he dissolved into a heap on the floor. The moment that Kazi cottoned on to what he was saying, they let out a very un-kazi like shriek of laughter and slumped down next to him, clutching their sides.  
It took Janai an embarrassing moment to replay the conversation that she and Gren had had earlier on in the day, about what her sister had said to Amaya, and then it clicked. Her face went the same colour as her hair.  


This made the two interpreters laps into another round of whooping laughter. Amaya joined in, chuckling silently along with them, more at Janai’s reaction then the peanut gallery’s. Janai’s old, childhood stories and fantasies played through her head, the ones involving knights in armour clanged right to the front of her mind.  
She blushed even harder. Sun dang it.  
Gathering her thoughts, Janai looked up at Amaya’s mirth filled face, making sure that Amaya could see what she was going to say.  
“.. can I pack a bag first?” she more squeaked than asked.  
This set Gren and Kazi off all over again. 

\- 

The next morning came with a glorious sunrise.  
As midmorning approached the human armies congregated outside the western gate to the city, awaiting the orders to move off. Even from her hiding spot just inside the city walls, Janai could clearly hear the sounds of cheerful singing and laughter from the troops, who were happy to be heading home to their families.  


Khessa was talking with the young queen of Duran nearby, and despite Amaya’s nephews being nearby, there was no sign of the lady of the hour.  
Janai had spent a chunk of the evening before dragging the bag she took on deployment out of its cubby hole, and packing it with things that she did not want to live without for a little bit, and said bag was now on one of the wagons (Gren knew which one) ready to go.  


Now all that was needed was Amaya. 

She spotted Gren first, saying goodbye for now to Kazi, who was staying behind to finish their studies, and naturally, Amaya was close by. They gave each over a discrete wave and smile.  
-I was stowing my shield- was the only answer she gave to what had delayed her.  
Gren sounded a bit too amused for Janai to take her word sat face value.  


Janai took her place next to her sister, Amaya next to the human princes as all of the higher ups gathered together on a stage in front of the western gate. Queen Zubeia sat to the side, casting a shadow over the assembled crowds who had tuned out to witness the proceedings.  
With all assembled, the freshly printed (as of last night) peace treaty was read out to the crowds below, and signed by the combined royalty and generals present ( with Queen Zubeia, who towered over everyone, adding her mark via magic.) And the command was given for the humans to start off for home, a honour guard of sunfire elves in toe.  


Janai felt Amaya’s presence directly behind her as she addressed Khessa, thanking her with next to no sarcasm for not throwing her in the fire pit this time around.  
Khessa, being back to her usual self, waved Amaya off with a dismissive air.  
-one more thing, before we part ways… remember what you said about being allowed to take anything I could carry with me?- Amaya asked with a slight smile.  
Khessa raised an eyebrow.  
“yes, I did say that. Why do you ask?”  


Amaya scooted closer to Janai, until she was almost touching her, gave Khessa a very sugary sweet smile, then in a flash, scooped up Janai, tossed her lightly over one shoulder and made a run for it before the radiant queen of the sunfire elves could react.  
-Mine now!-  
From her new view point, Janai realised that A, that Amaya had diched her shield to make the elf napping easier, and B, she could clearly see the shocked look of Khessa’s face as they left. Her sisters mouth was hanging open as they made their escape, ploughing into the middle of a column of laughing human troops, a look that was morphed into a combined look of surprise mixed with disbelief and what looked like a hit of amusement at the whole thing. Then the “give her back” and “this was not part of the agreement” yelling started somewhere behind them, as Zubeia’s deep, belly laughter rang out.  
Amaya didn’t stop. Janai did not want her to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> up next:  
> how to kidnap royalty, round 2: the moonshadow boogaloo


	3. Rayla

Rayla.

The full moon hung in the clear night sky. 

Rayla ran swiftly though the grounds of the stately manor, flitting between shadows, ducking behind the elaborate topiary that dotted the formal gardens.  
She had a mission to complete, a mission of dire urgency.  
She waited in the shadow of a statue of a prancing… something… as a guard patrol went past on there nightly rounds. The moment they were gone, she swept out of her hiding spot, and gained access to the ground floor of the manor through an unlocked window.  
Once she was in, she took a pause to work out where she was, and where she needed to go. Up to the second floor, 3ed room on the left, grab the target, and get out with the target.  


Simple, right?  
Right. 

There was more guards inside, but they were simple to avoid. She slunk along halls, up the stairs, and turned the corner to find that the room the target was in was guarded. Heavily guarded. There was at least 4 armed humans outside the door, and what looked like more just down the hall.  
With a huff, she back tracked a little, and slivered out one of the windows behind her. the window sills were narrow, but it was as easy as pie for some one of her training, so she was passed the guard and to the window of the room her target was in.  
Looking in, she could see him. He was asleep, by the looks of it.  
One set of lock picks later, she was in.  


She slinked over to the bed, moving around to the side of the bed that he was curled up on, and stood over him for a moment. He was so peaceful, with his soft brown hair and cute little nose, snoring softly as he slept.  
She awwwed a little.  


Then she merrily poked him awake. 

The kidnapped king of Katolis jolted awake with a start, disorientated.  
“hey there sad prince. Wanna go for a midnight stroll?”  
The sound of her voice made Callum focus, and he broke into a wide smile.  
“Rayla! What? How?” 

She shushed him, in case anyone heard him. They both sat in science for for a moment, ears straining, then relaxed as there was so sign of the small platoon outside the door making any movies to come into the room. They both sat and looked at each over. 

It had been a hectic couple of months since the peace treaty at Lux ariea.  
Due to the way that Ezren was, for lack of better terms, forced off the throne, not to mention the stink that the rest of the pentarchy was kicking up, it was decided, for his own sake, that was probably not a very good idea for him to take the crown back right away. So, since that was decided on, they needed to find someone to take over until Ezren was old enough, or at least more experienced in life. what ever that ment.  
It was tradition that an orphan would be picked for the role, and, my! How fortunate! There was one orphan in easy reach, who was close to prince Ezren, had a knowledge of the military and how the royal court worked.  
And was not likely to be going of the deep end and declaring war on anyone any time soon.  


Callum, in his own words, had not run fast enough to get out of things. 

But, predictably, this had set of a whole different set of problems.  
Within days of his coronation, noble families from all 5 kingdoms were offering him there (mostly same aged) children as potential marriage candidates. Apparently being the first human in recorded history to work out primal magic made you a very desirable spouse to have, royalty or not.  
And of course, one of these (rather notorious) noble families had not taken no for an answer.  


Poor Callum had been king/mage-napped right out of one of the walled gardens. 

Opeli had, quite bluntly, turned to Rayla and told her to fetch before General Amaya found out about things.  
Rayla had happily obliged. As fun as it would be to watch the fiery retribution that would be brought by the General (and soon to be wife) from a safe distance, it would also probably be classed as ‘one hell of a diplomatic incident’.  


Callum hopped out of bed, and started to gather the minimal things that were his together. He had.. not much, since he only had the clothing and crown he had been wearing at the time of nabbing and his sketchbook, along with a couple of very nice ‘gifts’ that his ‘future in laws’ had given him to try to sweeten things up.  
Say what you want, this lot at least had good taste in jewery and fancy trinket boxes. 

\- 

They shimmied out of a the window, down the drain pipe, and darted off across the garden like a pair of hares with a rabid hound after them. though the topiary garden, around the fountain, and off across the deer park.  
How the guards did not see Callum stumbling after the love of his life, he did not know. His running had gotten faster over the last couple of months, due to his Zadian adventure, but he was still a clutzy teen with two left feet. But he managed.  
They did not stop running until they could not see the lights of the house anymore, and were safely inside of the tree line.  
Then they both slumped to the ground, leaning against each over, painting hard.  


Rayla’s eyes glowed an eerie lilac in the gloom of the woods as she scanned the way they had come, checking again for any sign of people following them, allowing Callum to catch his breath for just a little longer. Once she was extra sure that they were not being chased, she pulled her sad king up to his feet, and led him deeper into the trees, and to the boundary of the property they were on. Tethered to a tree, with a pile of hay at its hooves was a horse, hitched up to one of the light dogcarts that was in service to the royal family. It had been given to Rayla as a form of transport that was faster than being on foot, and did not require Callum to try to ride anything.  
Opeli was a smart woman. 

\- 

They trotted along in silence as the dawn broke behind them.  
The road they were traveling along was bordered by rice patties full of the croaking of frogs and the chattering of song birds as the world woke up around them. compared to the last couple of days, it was nice and peaceful. Just them, the horse, and the sounds of nature.  
Callum gazed at the lightening sky for a long while, taking it all in. 

“Rayla?” he said, out of the blue.  
“yes Callum?” she replied, a tired edge to her voice.  
“will you marry me?”  
“WHAT.” Rayla seemed very awake all of a sudden. The horse startled slightly at her sudden outburst.  
“will you, Rayla of silvergrove, marry me? Not right now, but ….once things have settled down a bit. And we are a little older.” Callum, for one, could not believe how fluid his thoughts were at the moment. ” ……. Rayla?” 

She was gawping at him. Really gawping. Mouth hanging, eyes bugged out in surprise.  
“Ray?” Callum waved his hand in front of her eyes. Oh brilliant, he thought, he’d broken her.  
“..what…” was the only thing Rayla’s mind and mouth could come out with. 

\- 

They pulled over just outside the next village so that Rayla could reset her brain. A cup of tea later and she was at least able to string together sentences.  
“why tha’ hell would you spring something like that on me?”  
“why do you think?” Callum asked cheekily, sipping his own cup of tea.  
“Callum, no.”  
“Callum, yes.” He stuck his tongue out at her over his cup “I love you, you silly thing.” 

She scoffed at her sappy king.  
“no really. You know I do. I know that you know I do”  
“sap.”  


Rayla drained her cup, and leaned back against the side of the dog art. They watched the village come to life as the morning processed, most of the villagers too busy to pay the two of them too much mind as they went about their business.  
After a while, Rayla spoke up again.  
“I’m gonna get so much flack for this back in Zadia, but.. I like the sound of Queen Rayla of Katolis.”  
She thought for a moment.  
“heh, take that silvergrove snobs…….. Oh moon and shadow, Ethari’s gonna flip! In a good way! ”  
Callum tilted his head, smiling in fond agreement.  


“well, I hope he freaks in a good way. But, Callum, dummy, how am I gonna get ya ma’s crown around-“ she mimed to her horns “-these?”  
Callum sat back for a moment, going over the problem in this mind. That was a problem that was going to need to be addressed at some point. As was the response of the reaction that the council was most probably going to have. And the Zadian diplomats. Ezren and aunt Amaya would be in on things at least.  
And that was all before the rest of Rayla’s family found out.  


“so…was that a yes?”  
“to marrying my sad prince?”   
"king." Callum interjected, beaming   
"to marrying my sad King." Rayla giggled, leaning over to Kiss Callum on the lips “yes. Yes, yes, yes”  
“now, let’s get ya royal ass back home, before someone else tries to take over.” 


End file.
